Our family has grown!!!

I know I haven't blogged in a long time! I have so much to blog about, but I can't get the pictures downloaded because I'm having problems with the memory card. I can see the pictures on my computer, but when I put the card into the card reader, it shows most of the pictures are damaged. I don't think they are since I can view them on the computer, so I'm going to find a cord and try to download them that way....cross your fingers! Now for the news.......





Meet our new little girl!



#1 has been begging (and I do mean begging!) us to let her get a pet. She finally decided that if we wouldn't let her have a horse, she would settle on a cat! So she has been asking for a cat and coming up with solutions for every secenario we have thrown out there! (Where would we keep a litter box? Who would feed it? Who would clean the litter box? etc.) She did a really good job coming up with solutions, too. Sometimes she had a quick answer, other times she would think about it for about a week and then randomly answer the question. (driving down the road out of no where she gave us a good answer for where the litter box could be kept....I knew then what she had been thinking about for the previous week!).



So tonight, after much discussion between me & Ryan, we surprised the girls with a trip to the animal shelter. We looked at all of the cats and then told the girls to pick one. #1 couldn't believe it! #2 was a little more reserved. If we walked by a cage and the cat started trying to reach out to bat at us, she squealed and squirmed away from it! It was a little much for her to take in.



We finally decided on a 10 week old calico kitten....her name is still being discussed. #1 thought of "Sparkle." #2 says "Salsa." The cat was called by both names tonight. Neither child is insistent on the name she suggested, so we'll have to discuss it some more, and possibly come up with another option. I'll let you know when the name has been determined.





























I thought this was a funny picture of #2 trying to figure out how to get her hands on the cat! Since Sissy was holding it, she thought she'd try to hold its hand. It looks more like she is trying to squeeze the leg off, but she really was being gentle!

This morning the girls and I walked #1 to school. It was such a nice, cool morning, that #2 and I stayed outside when we got back home and worked in the garage. Ryan has been working really hard to get the attic decked and stuff moved up there. There is enough room for my car to get parked in there, but there are still a lot of boxes lining the walls. While I was unpacking/sorting/organizing, #2 did a good job playing and entertaining herself. She was singing as she played, and sang every word to the chorus of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." I grabbed the camera and asked her to sing it for me again. She got a little bit shy, so some of the words are kind of under her breath, but you can get the jist of it! Too cute!

First Day of Preschool...and almost Kindergarten

Here is a picture of #2 on her first day of 3 year old preschool. And a picture of #1 from her first day 3 years ago! I love to find pictures of my girls at the same milestone and compare their looks and faces....so much of their personalities shine through! #2 is having a great time at Grana's. She is one of the big kids now. Last year there were 3 5 year olds and 3 2 year olds. Now the 5 year olds are in kindergarten, so #2 has moved into the "big kid" position. Ms. Carol says that she is doing great and seems to obey and get along better without big sis around. Apparently big sis would try to help, which would just get #2 riled up, and then she'd start acting up. This year she is one of "the three little angels." We've also heard #2 refered to as "my sweet, quiet little one" by Ms. Carol. I think that #2 has Ms. Carol fooled!

Grandma & Grandpa sent a cookie boquet to #1 today! It was for good luck on her first day of school! The picture on top shows cookies decorated with a bottle of glue, "Have Fun" and a box of crayons. The cookies in the bottom picture had a pencil, her name & "ABC 123." She immediately ate the cookie with the crayons. She voluntarily shared her cookies with all of us. She gave me the bottle of glue, #2 the "ABC 123" and Ryan the pencil. She is saving the "Good Luck" and name one for later. Apparently "later" means 3 hours in her world...she had 1/2 of one of them after dinner tonight. We'll save the other half for tomorrow and the other one for Thursday! Thanks Dave & Tess!

Back to School Fashion Show

So I've created a monster....we went back to school shopping and then had a fashion show for Dad...he took pictures of most of the outfits for us. We didn't think to take pictures until our 3rd of 4th costume change. Then we bought a couple of more outfits the next day (including a gold sequin tank top that is just like something Hannah Montana would wear!), but we haven't taken pictures of those outfits yet. I'm just going to throw these on here with very few comments (hopefully I can refrain from commenting too much!).

**the above outfit does not have a tie....she found a ribbon and added that accessory herself. I will not allow the ribbon to be worn out of the house! :)

**the above is her favorite dress. After seeing a lady in a strapless dress yesterday, she has decided that she would like a dress that does not tie around her neck or have any "strap things." I informed her that she is not old enough for a dress like that. She then asked if she could tell the lady in the dress that she thought the dress was beautiful. (and she did tell her that)

**her favorite outfit....can you tell?!

**FYI - these jeans are too long...I am taking them back

The shirts in the 3 pictures above (and the white capri pants in the first of the 3 pictures) were sent to us by Grammy Saundra. #1 is usually really picky about her clothes, but she LOVED all of the clothes. Grammy Saundra must know #1's style really well!

**We got black leggings to wear under this skirt. Dad says it's too short. It's not a skort, so it does need something under it.

That is all that we've taken so far. She probably has another 5 outfits that she hasn't modeled, but when she does, I'll take pictures and post them.

Since #2 was left out of most of this, I'm going to include a couple of cute pictures that Ryan took while #1 was changing clothes!

I love this one of her!

Oh how they grow!

A couple that we know are missionaries in Indonesia. They had a picture of their two girls (same age difference as our girls) that shows their oldest pushing their 4 week old in the baby stroller (I'm sure they were well supervised). Anyway, it reminded me of the picture that I had of my girls when they were 3 years and 4 months, respectively. Then just last week, here they came in that doll stroller again! I grabbed my camera and took a picture so I could see how they've changed. Now they are 5 1/2 and 2 3/4! It's amazing how their personalities are captured in both of the pictures. Even at 4 months old, #2 wouldn't submit and look at the camera...ha! Now, at almost 3, she'll look at the camera, but won't smile for me...she has to be herself and make her own face! Of course, #1 just poses and smiles!

From the mouth of a 5 year old...

As I was folding laundry, I was listening to my girls playing in the other room. #1 was making a tent and I heard her exclaim "This is the perfectest tent! I'm a genius! I really am, come see! ......Oh wait, I'm not a genius. Yes, I am! I am genius! Come look at this perfect tent!" (apparently the blanket that she had draped over the laundry basket had falllen, making her question whether she truly was a genius, but then she fixed it and restored her confidence!)

She was talking to her sister, so #2 ran in there to see this "perfectest" tent and they started playing! I had to hurry to the computer so I could type this while it was still fresh in my memory!

Too cute!

Swim lessons & Saturday mornings

#1 finished swim lessons...she has mastered the doggie paddle and is working on arm pulls for her freestyle. She can now float on her back, tread water, and do the elementary back stroke. She really learned a lot this year. She will even jump into the 4ft end of the pool without insisting Ryan or I be there next to her to catch her.


#2 did a pretty good job hanging out poolside while big sis got to swim. Luckily, the swim instructor had a dog that liked to play fetch. #2 played with the dog quite a bit.

Ryan took some pictures of the girls hanging out on a Saturday morning. We love the picture of #1. The picture of #2 shows off yet another one of her many faces!

4th of July

Our neighborhood has a 4th of July bike parade for the kids. They get to decorate their bikes, or scooters, or wagons and ride around Founder's Park. #1 really got in to decorating her bike and even wore the wig for a couple of laps around the park. #2 fell asleep, so we let her sleep while we decorated, but when we tried to wake her up, she would not get up. Her eyes would roll back in her head and she'd roll over and go back to sleep. We decided that I would stay home with her and Ryan would take #1 to the parade. I hate it that #2 missed out, but she ended up taking a 3 1/2 hour nap, so we're glad we decided to let her sleep!




The little boy about to run #1 off the road is Sam, a friend of hers from preschool. He wasn't being very nice that day....and was probably really trying to run her off of the road!


She loves to walk across the pond on the big "stepping stones." If you look really close, you can see that she is holding the phone. She called me to tell me about the parade and see if she could go home with her friend Jax and play there for a while. This picture reminds me of a picture of me when I was about the same age. I was laying under the table, with the phone to my ear, just talking away! It looks like she is going to be a chatterbox like her momma....always on the phone!

That evening, we went down to one of the parks in the neighborhood with Jax's family and watched some fireworks. Apparently a couple of brothers that live in the neighborhood spent several thousand dollars on some fireworks. They set up a couple of platforms and a trailer in an empty lot and put on quite a show! We watched the fireworks for a long time...and then had to leave (before the fireworks were over) because #2 had to go potty (image that!). When we were heading home, we passed one of the bigger parks and realized that it was packed! There were A LOT of people watching that firework display. The next day we saw a trailer with a bunch of fireworks turning into the neighborhood. We're wondering if the same people bought some fireworks on sale and are holding them for next year....we sure hope so! :)